Washington Post: A President Obama impersonator brought down the house Saturday at the Republican Leadership Conference, telling a string of racially themed jokes about the president.

The impersonator, Reggie Brown, took the stage at the annual presidential cattle call to the Bruce Springsteen song “Born in the USA” – an allusion to the birther controversy.

A sampling of what followed:

• On Black History Month: “Michelle celebrates the full month. I celebrate half.”

• “My mother loved a black man,” but “she was not a Kardashian.”

• A picture was shown of Obama and the first lady when he took office. The impersonator then showed a picture of what the Obamas will look like when the president leaves office, and it was the characters of Fred Sanford and his sister-in-law, Ethel, from the show “Sanford and Son.”

• Of Tim Pawlenty’s decision not to criticize Mitt Romney at Monday’s debate: “[CNN’s] John King served him up a ball softer than Barney Frank’s backside.” (Frank is a gay member of Congress from Massachusetts.)

….Eventually, Brown was ushered offstage by the man who introduced him. Conference organizers did not immediately respond to questions about why Brown was ushered offstage or whether his jokes were approved in advance.

As Brown was preparing to make a Michele Bachmann joke, one of the conference’s officials came out to the lectern and told the comedian to leave the stage.”

So they were okay with the racist, homophobic stuff, they drew the line at him making jokes about Bachmann?

Oh boy.

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Our very own GGail contacted Reggie Brown’s agent (info@williamgold.com) – this is the reply she got:

“We’ve done the same speech in Harlem for a black advocacy group that we support and they laughed. It’s called comedy and I’m sorry that you don’t understand. The press is spinning this out of control and we would appreciate support from the public rather than falling into a media trap. Reggie is being used by the media both on the right and the left so that they can score political points at his expense. Our show was nothing more than political comedy that goofed on both sides; it wad no worse than what President Obama did at his own White House Correspondence Dinner.

I just saw a comment from Cindy about anti-President Obama (healthcare reform) ads appearing on this site. Because I run the site I can’t see any of this stuff, can you let me know what you’re all seeing – what ads are appearing, and where?

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U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor throws out the ceremonial first pitch before a baseball game between the Chicago Cubs and the New York Yankees at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

I love her!!!!

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Thank you everyone for all the comments on today’s posts, the contrast between your decency and civility and the bile spewed by the professional left and teabaggers says it all – with any luck their hate will devour them.

After playing a round of golf, President Barack Obama has a drink with Vice President Joe Biden, Speaker of the House John Boehner, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, at Joint Base Andrews, June 18. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

White House statement, endorsed by John Boehner:

“The foursome had great time and really enjoyed playing golf at Joint Base Andrews today. The President and Speaker Boehner teamed up to beat the Vice President and Governor Kasich. The match was won on the 18th hole – the President and the Speaker won $2 each.”

“After finishing their round, the President, Speaker Boehner, the Vice President and Governor Kasich went to the patio of the clubhouse where they enjoyed a cold drink, some of the U.S. Open coverage and visited with service members.”

Bob Cesca: Several members of the firebagger high command appeared on a panel at Netroots Nation to beat their myopic unrealistic mythological drum about how President Obama is the worst president ever, etc, etc.

…..it was Dan Choi, John Aravosis of AmericaBlog and, naturally, Jane Hamsher collectively lying about the president’s record on, among other things, LGBT rights.

Dan Choi appeared on Lawrence O’Donnell last night to repeat all of the hyperbolic silliness about how the president has broken all of his promises to the gay community – an accusation that simply is not true….

Here’s Aravosis during the panel: “…. We were told he’d be a fierce advocate, and he’s been not fierce at all and not much of an advocate.”

Not a fierce advocate? Not that into you? Horseshit. Utter horseshit. In addition to the Obama administration deciding not to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act because, in in the view of the Obama Justice Department, the law is unconstitutional, the president has also racked up the following LGBT achievements: see here

Check that out. That’s a long, long list for someone who “just isn’t that into” same-sex rights.

….Worse than Bush!

…..the firebaggers need to ditch this fiction about the president and embrace reality – or, better yet, people simply need to stop buying into their ridiculous whining, lying and undermining of a realistic progressive agenda.

July 2005: After a safari weekend, Laura Bush stepped out of a dusty SUV with her twin daughters on Monday to serve as a goodwill ambassador in Africa for President Bush.

The first lady’s whirl through South Africa, Tanzania and Rwanda this week comes on the heels of a Scotland summit where British Prime Minister Tony Blair made alleviating Africa’s mass suffering the top agenda item for Bush and leaders of other wealthy countries.

Mrs. Bush and her 23-year-old daughters, Barbara and Jenna, spent the weekend at the Madikwe Game Reserve on the South African-Botswana border….

The first lady’s staff asked photographers to refrain from shooting the twins as they boarded the plane in Gaborone, Botswana, for the flight to Cape Town, on grounds that they were not part of the official delegation.

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From what I’ve read, Laura Bush did some good work (eg see here) on her trips to Africa (she visited the continent five times and traveled in all to 10 different countries during Shrub’s reign, more visits than any other First Lady before her). Apart from a few voices, though, there weren’t too many complaints when she took her daughters to Africa, part of the 2005 trip a private safari.

Needless to say (yawn), the right are attacking Michelle Obama again because her trip to Africa will end with ….. a private safari.

I won’t link the site where I saw this discussed (one of the f**kwits there is posting racist photos in the thread), but I liked this exchange:

Question: Why were the right not outraged when Laura Bush took her daughters to Africa and they went on safari?

Chicago Tribune: With hundreds of letters arriving each week, first lady Michelle Obama’s mailbag is intriguing more for its variety than its volume.

….Obama gets about 500 to 700 messages a week, including letters, emails and faxes, said Howli Ledbetter, her correspondence director.

….Laura Barajas, 13, of Cicero, with her classmates wrote the first lady last year. Laura pledged to give up chips, except for a small bag on Sundays. The pledge didn’t last long, the girl said, but Obama’s letter has. “I thought it was cool,” Laura said. “I didn’t think she was going to write back.”

Aides to the first lady also respond to mail sent to her daughters, Malia and Sasha; her live-in mother, Marian Robinson; and the family’s Portuguese water dog, Bo.

Meagan Moeggenborg, 10, of St. Johns, Mich., wrote Bo last fall saying her two cats don’t like dogs, but her brother, Reese, does. “If he was with you, I bet he would pet you to death,” she wrote.

Her reward? A letter from the first lady and a postcard of Bo with such facts as his origins (born in 2008 in Texas), what he likes to eat (tomatoes or toys) and what he hopes to achieve (“make friends with foreign dignitaries”).

Deaniac (The People’s View): At Netroots Nation, Dan Choi was approached by OFA volunteer Nick Tschida, an organizer at one of Minnesota’s legislative districts who is working hard against a proposed state constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriages that will be up for a popular vote in 2012. So instead of giving this man kudos and shoring up support in favor of the effort to defeat the ban, Dan Choi insulted and humiliated the OFA volunteer by ripping up his Obama flyer and yelling at him. The problem? Nick Tschida mentioned that he wasn’t sure he supported full marriage equality.

….Someone like that deserves our gratitude, not the smug, condescending attitude that Dan Choi displayed. And if someone like that has to be nudged in the right direction on marriage equality, that is something those who claim to be leaders in the LGBT movement should be doing – and doing it with understanding, not humiliation.

….While Choi was badmouthing the President and his supporters, did he take a moment and flash through even a few of the accomplishments of this President for LGBT equality? As he sat on the panel, crassly titled “What to do when the President is not just that into you,” Choi provided every reason why not only the President but anyone who wants to make progress on major issues, including equality, should not be into people like these hotheads who beat up on those who support us.

….I am ashamed at the behavior of Dan Choi. And Nick, I apologize to you for Dan Choi’s behavior. I hope that you will continue to work for equality. Dan Choi does not represent gay activists. Dan Choi does not speak for me….

….Apparently, Dan Choi won’t vote for Obama if he does not endorse marriage equality. Fine. But I am here to tell you, Lt. Choi, that you cannot do worse damage to the LGBT rights movement than to help elect a Republican, which is where your rhetoric and scorched earth attitude, if successful, will lead. But I am also here to tell you that you will fail in that effort …. I will not let you hurt our movement and my brothers and sisters. You got yourself a challenge, buddy.

Starting today, you’ll notice something new about President Obama’s Facebook page and his Twitter account, @BarackObama.

Obama for America staff will now be managing both accounts, posting daily updates from the campaign trail, from Washington, and everywhere in between. You’ll be hearing from President Obama regularly, too; on Twitter, tweets from the President will be signed “-BO.”